Tag: Fairy Tales

Scarlet: Book Two of the Lunar Chronicles

On By cherylmahoneyIn Reviews, Science Fiction, Young Adult4 Comments

ScarletI came late to the game last year with Cinder by Marissa Meyer, so I was determined to jump in sooner with this year’s sequel, Scarlet.  It was a great read, and now I’m eagerly waiting to see where she’ll take the adventure in the next book!  Read my review of Cinder here, and be warned, there will be spoilers for that book in this review for Scarlet.

Cinder is a sci fi fairy tale retelling, featuring a cyborg Cinderella (who leaves her foot on the palace steps!)  The last book ended with Cinder under arrest, soon to be handed over to the vicious, mind-controlling Lunar Queen.  Scarlet brings in several new characters, starting us off with title character Scarlet, whose beloved grandmother recently disappeared.  She’s soon pulled into a much larger and more dangerous game than she realized, and reluctantly accepts the help of a mysterious street fighter she knows only as Wolf.

Meanwhile, Cinder swiftly breaks out of jail and goes on the run, by accident and necessity working together with Carswell Thorne, conman, smuggler and thief.  The stories converge when Cinder and Carswell also end up on the trail of Scarlet’s grandmother, everyone intent on what secrets the woman could be hiding.

As you’re probably already guessing, this volume brings in “Little Red Riding Hood,” though only in the loosest sense.  I do love it that Scarlet wears a red hoodie, though!

The split plotlines gave me some trouble at first–I kept wanting to be in the other one, whichever one I was currently in–but once I got adjusted to that, I very much enjoyed the book.  Meyer ratchets up the stakes and the conflict, and introduces us to some excellent new characters.

I have a soft spot for charming rogues, so Carswell was a great addition.  He’s a very arrogant criminal who expects everyone else to be as impressed by his exploits as he is.  He brings some humor into a frequently dark book.  Scarlet is a good character as well, a fierce young woman who is determined to forge ahead and deal with things.  I hate passive heroines, and Scarlet is anything but.  Wolf is fascinatingly complex.  I have kind of a thing for dark, brooding heroes too, and he’s a wonderful blend of strength and wariness.  He’s immensely capable about some things (see: street fighter) but so nervous about others (like romance).  I love that blend.

My favorite character from the first book was also back, though I would have liked more of her…Iko, Cinder’s android friend.  She was dismantled in the last book but Cinder saved her personality chip, and in this book installs it into their spaceship.  Iko’s freaking out about whether she’s still attractive as a spaceship (“But I’m so huge!”) is absolutely wonderful.

Scarlet is living in France, and her search for her grandmother eventually takes her to Paris.  Being me, my first thought was, hey, maybe there’ll be an Opera House reference!  So imagine my delight when it turns out the kidnappers have actually made the Opera House their base. 🙂  This is set a long stretch into the future, so we get to go wandering through the crumbling but still recognizable remains of the Opera House, including the grand foyer, the marble stairs, and the auditorium.  Loved it.

The book takes a turn near the end, and I’m not sure how I feel about it.  For one thing, it suddenly gets a good deal more violent, and I could have lived without some of the blood.  For the other, possibly larger thing, some details are revealed on the Lunar Queen’s army, and I’m not sure if I like where this may be going.  But I can’t really tell, until the next book comes out!

I enjoyed Cinder and I think I may have actually liked Scarlet a bit better.  Or maybe it’s just fresher in my mind.  Either way, it didn’t disappoint, and I’m looking forward to #3!  The title is Cress, so I’m thinking…Rapunzel, maybe? 😉

Author’s Site: http://www.marissameyer.com/

Other reviews:
Dreaming of Books
Sophistikatied Reviews
Dark Faerie Tales
Others?

Buy it here: Scarlet

Rapunzel’s Revenge

On By cherylmahoneyIn Fantasy, Reviews10 Comments

Rapunzel's RevengeIn between sections of Les Mis last week, I picked up the far lighter Rapunzel’s Revenge by Shannon and Dean Hale.  I’ve loved Shannon Hale’s novels, and naturally I was intrigued by a graphic novel retelling of “Rapunzel”–and apparently one with a very awesome heroine.

Happily, I was not disappointed.  This takes “Rapunzel” as its jumping-off point, but mostly tells an original story.  Mother Gothel did steal Rapunzel as a small child, but in this version she’s using her magic to rule over the surrounding country, and keeping Rapunzel’s real mother as a slave in her mines.  When Rapunzel discovers the truth and reacts defiantly, Mother Gothel locks her up in a tower…where an effect of Mother Gothel’s growth magic causes Rapunzel’s hair to get longer and longer.  This Rapunzel rescues herself, and sets off to fight Mother Gothel and free her mother, joining forces with a good-hearted if slightly inept young man named Jack for a series of adventures.

There’s a bit of an Old West flair to this magical world, not the least in Rapunzel’s outfit.  She puts her hair into two braids and uses them as ropes or as whips, as the situation calls for it.  The idea of Rapunzel using her hair as a weapon is pretty awesome.  It’s a little similar to Tangled, but this Rapunzel has a lot more control of her hair than Disney’s Rapunzel.

I rather enjoy the gender role reversal too.  Jack has his talents, but he’s not as good a fighter as Rapunzel–and seems to be remarkably well-adjusted about that fact.  They’re clearly partners and mutually respect each other…and it’s fun to see the girl be the more aggressive half of the partnership.

This is an excellent, light retelling of a fairy tale–with an awesome, braid-toting heroine!  I’ve already got the sequel on request from the library.

Author’s Site: www.shannonhale.com

Other Reviews:
Fyrefly’s Book Blog
EA Younker
Tales Old as Time
Anyone else?

Buy it here: Rapunzel’s Revenge

Pucker Up…and Wake a Dead Guy?

On By cherylmahoneyIn Fantasy, Reviews, Young Adult1 Comment

Pucker UpI think anyone who’s around this blog even occasionally knows that I love retold fairy tales.  There are so many fascinating and strange elements to fairy tales that modern authors can play around with.  So what’s not to love in an urban fantasy about a girl who needs to wake a sleeping prince with a kiss?  Pucker Up by R. A. Gates is a YA Fantasy that takes a fun spin on some old fairy tale tropes.  Disclosure–the author is a friend and member of my writing group, but I promise an honest review anyway!

Pucker Up centers on Ivy, a reluctant witch who finds herself on a quest to wake up sleeping Prince Sebastian.  Ivy lives in Salmagundi, the place of refuge for anyone with magic, hiding from the witch-hunting Eradicators.  Unfortunately, the spells hiding the town are breaking down.  Ivy’s cousin Thane believes the answer is to wake up Prince Sebastian, who created the spells to begin with.  Ivy needs the reward money to pay a debt to a very angry werewolf.  As a descendant of Sebastian’s true love, she should be able to wake him up with True Love’s kiss…except that she really doesn’t want to kiss a dead guy!

I always approve of heroines who set off to do things rather than waiting for a man to save the day, and I love the twist of a girl needing to wake up a prince instead of the other way around. Ivy is a fun, somewhat-reluctant heroine, with good mysteries in her past that kept me curious as I read.  The book also keeps moving with a series of adventures on the journey to find the prince.  We get a whole host of magical creatures, including vampires and werewolves and even dragons–like a cute baby dragon nicknamed Sparky.

There are serious moments, but overall there’s a light tone to the book.  It’s frequently funny in a tongue-in-cheek way…as with the ongoing series of necrophilia jokes.  I love retellings that are aware of the absurdities in their inspiration material.

When Ivy and Thane set off on their quest, they’re accompanied by Thane’s friend Garren, who Ivy finds immensely irritating.  Don’t expect too many surprises in the romance department…but even if it’s a bit predictable, it’s fun to read.  And there are more surprises in the plot.

This is the first book in a series, and with some twists in the ending, I’m excited to see where it goes in the next book!  Alas, not published yet…

I think I’ll finish up by borrowing a line from Ivy’s dialogue on the last page–it’s not a spoiler, and I think it sums up the book nicely.

“Don’t even think you’re rescuing me.  I’m no damsel in distress.”

Author’s Site: http://ragates.com/

Buy it here: Pucker Up in paperback or ebook

Introducing the Twelve Dancing Princesses

On By cherylmahoneyIn Fiction Friday5 Comments

Long-time readers may remember that for NaNo 2011, I wrote the first draft of a novel based around the fairy tale of The Twelve Dancing Princesses (or The Shoes That Were Worn to Pieces).  I’ve finally completed a revision of my other major writing project, The Wanderers, and I’m now about a month into revising the princesses’ novel, The Storyteller and Her Sisters.

Since it’s rather occupying my life 🙂 how about an excerpt?  You can read this post if you want more context on the fairy tale, but you don’t really need it.  This is roughly Page 3 of the novel, and begins to introduce some of the principle characters…

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I think the real beginning of the story, for my sisters and me, was the day the Gate opened.

On that day, Vira, the oldest, was twenty-four.  The youngest, Talya, was fifteen.  I was seventeen.  We are each spaced a neat year apart, except for the two sets of twins.

It was evening when the Gate opened, and though that evening proved momentous, I remember little about the day that preceded it.  I assume it was the usual round of embroidery, penmanship and dancing lessons—we are all excellent dancers.  Whatever we did, it had to have been inside my father’s castle.  We were never allowed to leave.  The day no doubt closed with supper in the banquet hall with Father.  Such ran every day.

And in the evening, all my sisters were in our bedroom, brushing hair, pursuing hobbies, and chatting about a thousand different topics.  Rather like most girls, I think—not that I’d had a great deal of experience with a great many girls.  But I had read things.

Twelve of us shared a single bedroom, and there were days when it felt incredibly cramped.  In reality it was a large room, long and with a high ceiling.  There was a door at one end and a fireplace at the other, beds stretching in two rows down the length of the room.  I suppose we didn’t undergo that much hardship in our living conditions—though I defy anyone to share a bedroom with eleven sisters for fourteen years and not come up with a few complaints.

Such as the problem of eternally being interrupted in the good parts of stories. Continue reading “Introducing the Twelve Dancing Princesses” →

Godmothers and Fairy Tales and Tradition

On By cherylmahoneyIn Fantasy, Reviews4 Comments

I’ve been reading my way through Mercedes Lackey’s 500 Kingdom series, and I keep meaning to review each book…but I reviews piled up and I haven’t got to them.  So I thought maybe I’d better review the series on a whole.  It may be best looking at them all together anyway, because I have definite feelings–mixed.

The series has been rather hit and miss for me, both in that some books are better than others and that some aspects of books have been better handled than others.  The biggest advantage of this series is a blissfully brilliant concept–in the 500 Kingdoms (take that literally) life is constantly influenced by the Tradition, a vague, overarching, not-quite-intelligent magical force which tries to push people and events onto…well, traditional paths.  Therefore life tends to conform to familiar fairy tales, for good or for ill.  The Godmothers are a network of powerful magical women, who work through and around the Tradition, trying to create happy endings.

I love that concept.  I love all the playing with traditional fairy tales, and I love the clever ways they get retold.  I love the ways people find to manipulate the Tradition, and the sometimes silly things that have to be done to keep the Tradition happy.

Things get more mixed with the characters–from book to book, some have been strong while others have never felt fully realized.  Likewise, I have mixed feelings on the plots–some are good, but several have felt distinctly scattered.  But perhaps I’d better look at this book by book. Continue reading “Godmothers and Fairy Tales and Tradition” →